Americans Away From Home

War Deaths Photos Will Be Shown - Obama Reverses Policy

George W. Bush must have thought the American people are idiots.

"If you don't show the photos, they'll never know," he must have been thinking.

Rubbish!

At 4835 Americans dead and counting, including both Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush idiot-policy of not showing photos has been reversed.

Now the Pentagon will allow news photos of America's war dead when they come home, under a new policy announced today - finally.

Robert Gates, U.S. Defense Secretary, will permit the photos if families of fallen soldiers agree.

Soldiers who've died are brought to the Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, before being transferred to the hometowns of their families.

A leading group of military families urged the change to the policy enforced without exception under George W. Bush.

The sad facts:
"As of Tuesday, at least 584 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department."  (NY Times story here). 

Please check under "Hot Links" in the right column on this page, in the third group, to check figures and honored soldiers' stories in "The Sandbox" and "Honor American Soldiers," both of which have been here since the beginning of Americans Away From Home.

Carole